The present invention relates to search article estimation apparatus and method that estimate an article that a user is searching for in an environment in which tag readers, cameras, contact sensors, or the like are disposed, and a server for the search article estimation apparatus.
Conventionally, when estimating an article which is a search target in response to some input from a user, it is common practice to use the name or ID of the article, a keyword indicating the article, a synonym for the article, or the like. For example, in Patent Document 1, when a user does not remember the name of a search article, by inputting a keyword indicating the search article instead of inputting the name, from a keyboard, the search article is estimated (see Patent Document 1, for example).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-250768
However, in the aforementioned Patent Document 1, each time a user allows an article search system to search for an article, the user needs to purposefully input information on a search article to the article search system. Here, considering a case in which, for example, an article search is performed at general home, normally, there are such a large number of articles at home that a person cannot grasp and among them there are a lot of articles having the same name, such as cups. It is troublesome to perform, in order to distinguish between such articles with the same name, the process of assigning keywords to the individual articles, and moreover, it is not sure if the user can accurately remember the assigned keywords.
The present invention is made in view of the above-described issues. An object of the present invention is to provide search article estimation apparatus and method, and a server for the search article estimation apparatus, in which, even when a user cannot accurately provide the search article estimation apparatus with information on an article that the user wants to search for, the article that the user is trying to search for can be estimated.